Agartala — The Tripura High Court has directed the state government to extend regular pay scale benefits to teachers recruited through competitive examinations, declaring the state’s long-standing fixed-pay policy unconstitutional. In doing so, the court set aside a January 2025 judgment of a single bench that had upheld the policy.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit ruled that two government memorandums issued in 2001 and 2007, which mandated five years of fixed-pay service for newly recruited teachers, violated the constitutional principle of “equal pay for equal work” under Article 14.
Rejecting the state government’s argument that teachers had accepted the fixed-pay condition knowingly, as it was mentioned in their appointment letters, the court held that there was an inherent inequality in bargaining power between the government and the appointees. “The appellants cannot be expected to negotiate individually with the government about the illegality of fixed pay when they were appointed against regular and permanent posts after a proper selection process,” the bench observed.
The court was hearing two writ appeals arising from a common judgment delivered by a single judge in January 2025. The petitioners, represented by advocate Purusuttam Roy Barman, argued that they were appointed as Graduate Teachers and Post Graduate Teachers against duly sanctioned posts that carried regular pay scales approved by the Finance Department. Despite this, they were paid only 75 per cent of the minimum pay on a fixed-pay basis.
Accepting the submissions, the bench held that denial of the regular pay scale attached to sanctioned posts was arbitrary and unconstitutional. However, noting the delay in approaching the court, the judges limited the financial relief.
The court directed that the teachers would be entitled to regular pay notionally from the date of their initial appointment, but arrears would be payable only for three years prior to the filing of their writ petitions. The arrears must be paid with nine per cent annual interest within three months.
Setting aside the earlier judgment, the High Court declared the 2001 and 2007 memorandums unconstitutional and ruled that all petitioners would be deemed regularly appointed teachers from their date of joining. The court also imposed a cost of Rs 2,000 on the state government for each petitioner.
